Activist arrested as Beijing seeks to stifle dissent

CLAMPDOWN:：Although the new Chinese president was touted as being more liberal-minded, officials are showing little tolerance for any challenges to their rule

Reuters, BEIJING

Mon, Aug 12, 2013 - Page 5

China has arrested an activist on a charge of subversion, his brother and a rights group said yesterday, the second such arrest in less than two months and the latest sign that the authorities are hardening their stance toward dissent.

Yang Lin (楊林), 45, a critic of China’s one-party system who lives in Guangdong Province, was arrested on a charge of “inciting subversion of state power,” his brother, Yang Mingzhu (楊明珠), said by telephone.

In China, an inciting subversion charge is commonly leveled against critics of one-party rule. It carries a maximum penalty of five years in jail, though lengthier sentences have been handed down.

Yang Mingzhu said he had received a notice of his brother’s arrest, dated July 19, but it gave few details.

The US-based group Chinese Human Rights Defenders said Yang Lin, had spent a year in a labor camp and he was also a signatory of “Charter 08” — a manifesto organized by jailed Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) — which calls for political reform.

“He would not hesitate in throwing himself wholeheartedly in helping disadvantaged citizens fight for their rights and in activities promoting constitutional democracy,” the advocacy group said on its Web site yesterday.

Chinese liberals and intellectuals had hoped the new government that took over this year, under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), would be more tolerant of calls for reform, but authorities have seemed to indicate they will not tolerate any challenge to their rule.

In recent months, authorities have detained at least 16 anti-corruption activists over demonstrations calling for government officials to disclose their assets.

The Futian District Detention Center, where his brother said Yang Lin was being held, declined to comment. A formal arrest usually leads to a trial. Activists who are detained are sometimes released before they are formally arrested.

In June, authorities formally arrested a man for inciting subversion after he applied for permission to demonstrate on June 4, the 24th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.